By the time a CL deal is listed here, we're all probably at least 10 seconds too late to the party to begin with. The CL lurkers have their own tricks for finding ads the second they post. Even if posting the ad here were to get someone on Pinside to spoil someone else's deal (swoop in and offer a gillionbojillion dollars), those people were likely going to do that anyways without this thread's help.

I'm not bringing that up to be a thread crapper, but more for how it is harmless to have these things listed here so we can shoot the shit about them.

If Bay Area collectors are desperate for fair deals, you don't even need CL. Get to know some collectors in your community. Don't be a dick or obviously use people just to flip machines and suddenly finding games X, Y and Z that you really wanted is not as difficult as you thought. You might even find yourself inside a warehouse. Hell, you may even enjoy the hobby more! It's been my experience since I first started collecting vids in 97.

P.S. MM is still gonna be expensive though. Sorry.

Your logic is sound. I even very much agree with it in most cases, unfortunately, this is NorCal/Bay Area Craigslist we are talking about. This situation is not that one-dimensional. I swear to you...by whatever book you want me to, with a hand over my heart...that I have heard your story hundreds if not thousands of times over without an ad EVER hitting Pinside, RGP or KLOV.

I guarantee you that there was already a very high likelihood that you were not the first person to contact the buyer. I can even more so guarantee you that someone was going to swoop in and attempt to spoil your sweet deal without anyone mentioning it on Pinside/RGP/KLOV. If you snag a fair deal off of Craigslist in the Bay Area in 2013, you're already dodging several bullets. There are people in this local community whose entire (notorious) reputation is from being known for spoiling other people's Craigslist deals. In some cases just to flip them the next day. I've heard stories of people driving several miles out of their way to pick up a game, just to receive a phone call as they get off the freeway that someone else bought it. I've even heard of situations where a buyer is in the driveway talking to a seller, just to have someone walk up and step in between them to offer more cash. Being cut off at the email point is a blessing in some cases.

Craigslist is just not the gold mine it use to be, unless you're prepared to be cut throat competitive or carry a lot of lucky charms in your pockets. Pinside/KLOV/RGP's contribution to that bad luck is miniscule, because everyone and their Mom is already watching the same CL listings without this thread.

He's a nice guy and definitely gets props from me. He worked his butt off organizing a warehouse raid and instead of hoarding it all for himself, he shared it with the NorCal vid community. A lot of guys got some nice deals from his generosity (myself included).

I don't know who the operator was, since it's not an area I am super familiar with (and I don't remember there being tags on my machines). I know a guy that got a very nice Jackbot and another guy that snagged a nice Batman Forever out of there.

I was primarily picking up vid stuff, since the pinball stuff was slim pickings. Picked up a dedicated Mortal Kombat II that was converted to Ergheiz that's sitting in the "restoration waiting room" and a working dedicated Pole Position. Now, non-working Pole Positions are a dime a dozen, but working is sort of a rare beast. These things are super touchy and wonky. I'm holding onto mine waiting for the supposedly much more stable, multi-PP board being worked on. Then a tall stack of parts/boards/art for 90's games (I'm more a 90's collector than 80's when it comes to vids).

Fucked up story: I actually brought my pregnant wife with me for the first haul (it's a 2+ hour drive...she saw it as our last adventure before the kid arrives). I blew a tire on the way back and she had contractions on the side of the road. I almost had my baby on the side of the freeway in Fresno. They ended up being those false alarm contractions, which I forget the name of. Four tires later and I pretty much paid the worth of both machines just transporting them home. A week or so later my daughter was born.